BATON ROUGE (LA)
The Advocate
April 3, 2018
By Andrea Gallo
After domestic violence deaths plagued Baton Rouge last year and as sexual assault survivors come forward en masse as part of a national #MeToo movement, Baton Rouge leaders are inviting survivors to openly tell their stories later this month.
April is sexual assault awareness month. Mayor-President Sharon Weston Broome, the Sexual Trauma Awareness and Response organization and members of a local women’s advancement commission announced Tuesday that they are ramping up a “start by believing” campaign.
They expect to host five listening sessions later this month and next month with survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence who openly tell their stories in a public forum. Racheal Hebert, president and CEO of STAR, said each survivor’s story should help to pinpoint and fix flaws in the health care, law enforcement and educational fields.
“Our message to survivors is clear: what happened to you is not your fault and we believe you,” Hebert said Tuesday.
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